In-Vehicle Audio Ad Fingerprinting for Synchronized Visual Content

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Solution Overview

Problem

Vehicle-based media systems often lack the capability to provide additional or alternative visual information for audio content, such as advertisements, which may not be encoded in the radio broadcast, limiting the occupant's experience and potential interactions with the advertised content.

Innovation Solution

A vehicle-based media system that captures audio content using microphones, generates audio fingerprints, and compares them to reference fingerprints to identify advertisements, retrieving associated visual content, which can include scannable images like QR codes, to enhance the occupant's experience and increase interaction opportunities.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If the vehicle-based media system only displays information encoded in the radio broadcast, then the system complexity remains low, but the occupant's experience and interaction opportunities are limited

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveinteraction opportunitiesVSAvoidsystem complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system pre-loads visual content and interactive elements into local storage before they are needed. When an audio advertisement is detected, the corresponding visual content is already available in the buffer, enabling immediate display without real-time network requests, thus enhancing interaction opportunities while maintaining system responsiveness

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system introduces an intermediary processing layer that receives audio content, identifies advertisements through fingerprinting, retrieves corresponding visual content from local storage, and synchronizes the display. This intermediary layer decouples the complexity of ad identification and visual content management from the core media playback system

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Adaptability or versatility

If the system retrieves and displays visual content for every audio advertisement, then the occupant's engagement increases, but the loss of time for content retrieval and processing increases

Engineering Contradiction:
ImproveengagementVSAvoidcontent retrieval time
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

Visual content, interactive elements, and related data are pre-loaded into local storage during off-peak times or when network conditions are favorable. When an advertisement is detected, the system retrieves content from local storage rather than requesting it in real-time, eliminating retrieval delay and maintaining continuous engagement

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system dynamically adjusts content retrieval strategies based on detected advertisement characteristics, occupant behavior patterns, and network conditions. Frequently advertised content is cached locally, while less frequent content may be retrieved on-demand, optimizing the balance between engagement and retrieval time

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

3Loss of information

If the system displays all available visual content for advertisements, then the information completeness increases, but the difficulty of detecting and measuring relevant content increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveinformation completenessVSAvoidcontent relevance detection
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSDifficulty of detecting and measuring

Solution Approach 1:

The system applies different processing and filtering criteria to different types of content based on their relevance to the detected advertisement. Audio advertisements receive full visual content matching, while music and talk radio receive minimal or no visual overlay, optimizing information completeness where needed while reducing detection complexity where unnecessary

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The system incorporates feedback mechanisms that monitor occupant interaction with displayed content. When occupants consistently ignore or dismiss certain types of visual content, the system learns to filter out similar content in the future, maintaining information completeness for high-value content while reducing the detection burden for low-value content

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

Data Source

PatentEP3831080B1Vehicle-based media system with audio ad and visual content synchronization feature
Publication Date: 2024.06.12 GRACENOTE INC
  • EP3831080B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3831080B1 patent drawingFigure 2A
  • EP3831080B1 patent drawingFigure 2B

AI summary

In one aspect, an example method to he performed by a vehicle-based media system includes (a) receiving audio content: (b) causing one or more speakers to output the received audio content; (c) using a microphone of the vehicle-based media system to capture the output audio content; (d) identifying reference audio content that has at least a threshold extent of similarity with the captured audio content; (e) identifying visual content based at least on the identified reference audio content; and (f) outputting, via a user interface of the vehicle-based media system, the identified visual content.